On the first Saturday of October, a yellow posterboard sign on the corner of Gorsuch and Kirk declared, "Free: Everything Is Free—The Free Store."

Two tables full of clothes flanked the sidewalk. Walking up a few steps from there, a square area of clothes, shoes, household goods, knickknacks, and children's books filled the front yard of the Progressive Action Center. All the clothes were being offered for free by the volunteers and collective members of the Baltimore Free Store, a group that gathers donated goods and offers them every two weeks at different city locations for redistribution to anyone.

Vonnie Simmons has been volunteering for a few months now and says the Baltimore Free Store is important because it “helps the people that really need the help.” She puts up flyers announcing upcoming Free Stores at bus stands in the city. The next Free Store will be on Saturday Oct. 15th – Noon to 4 p.m.—on 23rd and Greenmount, outdoors and so weather permitting.

This past Saturday, there were between 500 and 1,000 items of clothing, books, shoes, drinking glasses, and other goods available. In the late afternoon, the Baltimore Free Store encampment had a steady stream of people picking through these items. Alongside, a handful of kids played on a small slide-set and jungle-jim; the children gave off energy and laughter. The atmosphere was quite festive, abetted by warm sunlight and a faint, languid breeze.

The Free Store has a Web site at www.freestorebaltimore.org where they list their activities and a mission statement. Free Store collective member Iris urges people to contact them. People can help out, donate goods, or offer a suggestion for a place to set up a Free Store. “We try to do them in Northeast Baltimore,” says Iris.

The Free Store accepts donations every Saturday at a garage located in an alley next to 3221 North Calvert Street. Donations are accepted on Saturdays from noon to 5 p.m., every week.

In the long run, says the Free Store’s Matt Warfield, "Our goal is to create community through recruiting volunteers, so they can eventually set up their own free stores.”

As the Free Store Web site says, “We do this as a way to cut back on waste, to encourage recycling and reuse, and to highlight the insane amount of consumption and waste we go through in our society. In a country this wealthy we should never have such a high rate of homelessness and working poor. The Free Store is one small way to help alleviate the traumas of poverty.”